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Published: July 30th 2005
Sikh Temple
1st day of the tour we got to see this temple Hi everyone,
We've finally got our act's together and have come up with a combined experience of India.
When you read through this diary, you will notice that, it is as if a third person is writing it. We hope you enjoy...
'We literally started the tour minutes after arriving at the hotel in Dehli. We arrived at 12.30pm (5.5hrs difference) and that was it. We were on the tour of Dehli its self, no sleep & no food since 4.00am. It didn't seem to affect us too much - well, you know what its like first day on our jollies!!!
We visited the India Gate. This impressive Parliment Building, Rashtrapati Bhawan, was once the Palace of the British Viceory and now the President of India's home.
As for the temples they are just amazing, a complete culture shock...but hey, thats why we did this.
As we arrived at the Sikh Temple, we had to get out amongst the complete chaos of traffic, bikes, rikeshaw, cows and God knows what else, again. Its so overwelming and we did, at point, feel our life was slightly in danger, as yet another crazy rickshaw driver cut passed us.
You
Streets of Dehli
Glimpse into the hussle and bussle of indian life have to take off your shoe & cover your head, then bow to the Holy Book as you enter the Temple. We tried some of their holy bread. Its more of a mix of wheat & butter we think, bit weird. Loads of the locals wanted photos of of us - do kinda feel alittle on show, role reversed I guess..... We're trying to get all these pic' of them doing stuff, just as much as they want pic' of us! crazy!
Satya is our Tour Guide. He's great. He seems to be able to pull anything out of the bag, "what ever you want, I will get for you, as long as you are happy, I'm happy"
Up bright & breezy for our 7hr drive to Shekhavati, part of Rajasthan... 11hrs later though(!), we arrive, after stopping only 5 times for the loo(or 'Happy house' as Satya would say). The last stop was lovely 'Jamuna Resort', just off the main routes on our journey. It was an absolutley fabulous place, all highly decorated fresco'd walls with mirror tiles. It really was something else, untill we entered Shekhavati. The place is renowned for its painted fresco's and Havelis (Merchant Houses).
Found Friends
They seemed so excited to see us, they all wanted photos The venders & beggers are classic, the have it down to a fine art. We have to be so careful not to get sucked in, they truely have no shame. The ladys balancing these small, beautiful babies on their hips and carrying large water pots on their heads, make for a great picture, and don't they know it! You sure have to make it worth their while. The boys, no more than 11yrs old, showing you around, taking care of you. Befriending you and then just so happens to mention their dad has a jewellery shop just round the corner - "you buy, you buy"!!!!
Satya arranaged, once again, a lovely meal on the roof of the Havelis where we were staying, lit by candles, totally picturesque. We heard sounds of a festival from afar and questioned Satya about it. Satya, sent a boy to check what all the commotion was about and if the group could join in!! Wow!, it was a pre-wedding street party (on the groom' side). They invited us to join in with the festivities, pulling us into the crowd and making us dance, great fun. I can't believe Satya can just pull things like
Happy House
This was one stop before Shehavati. Absolutely beautifully decorated, with mirrors & feathers. that out of the bag. I mean, he didn't even know them.
The Havelis we stayed in were once owned by a Jewel Trader in the 1890's. Shekhavati is a quite remote place and relatively unheard of. We found that unbelieveable, as it is a really unique/beautiful place to visit & stay. We visited more Havelis's during the morning, all equally fasinating, with the fresco's depicting their cultures passion for travel, their history, & day to day life.
Our next destination, the 'luxury mud huts' - we couldn't wait to see what these would be like! Although I don't think either one of us had any expections....... Mind blowing, the accomodation just got better with each new place we stayed. As a group, we couldn't get over this, but they do. Each place unique & special in its own way.
It was a magical place, set out like a mini village with intertwinning pathways leading to central gardens, with the huts surrounding them. The pool overlooked the rolling sand-dunes of Mandawa. Each hut had it's own wall art, it almost look aboriginal. They were very spacious, which suprised us. You had your own bathroom, lounge area and best
Shevhavati-Heritage Hotel
We stayed here, the picture doesn't do it justice. of all, a flushing loo & electricity...yippy!!!
After a spot of lunch, we prepared ourselves for the camel ride! eeek! Thank God neither one us had Dehli Belly - could of been fatal, as the ride was about two hours long. These guys look a lot bigger face to face. We nicknamed ours 'Spike' due to the tuft of very orange hair on the top of his head. When the damn thing gets up, you get thrust forward that far, you think your going 'arse over tit', then to be thrown backwards as it pushes up on to its front legs..... scary, its a long long way down, too. Was kinda amusing watching the camels struggle with the blazing heat, along with combined weight of our very well fed western bums. We got taken through the local villages, half way round we stopped at a farmers house to have a traditional cup of 'chai'. Apparently a middle-class man, although the only furniture he had was the slung hammock-like benches that we were sitting on!
Again, Satya organised the entertainment to accompany the evening meal, which was set outside by candle light, buffet style. We watch local a girl
Women & Children
These guys are so clever, they make a living out of begging. dance for us, whilst her father played an instrument that was a cross between a Banjo & a Violin.... She was so cute, all dressed up.
Satya though it would be nice if we all danced. Lou seemed to get the hang of it pretty quick. Then a puppet show, with the traditional Rajestany dolls, which were sold by every guy on every street...you can't seem to get away from them. Dale, one of the guys in our group (hi Dale!), seemed to be getting a little bit of collection going on.
(Lou) "We had our own suspisions about why - personally I think he wants to create his own one-man show back in New York!!!"
Advise to fellow travellers attempting to go out at night - take a torch. All mud huts look alike in the pitch black, as we discovered...30 minutes of walking around when all you want to do is sleep, isn't the best.
Day 4 of the tour - back on the road again, travelling to Jaipur known as the Pink City. We were told that it had been painted this colour in 1800's to honour the British King visiting at that time
- can't think which one right now...will look at my notes and get back to you on that one. On our arrival at the Hotel, we found the telephone and Internet services (yippy!!!!), although there was only a couple of computers. Lou managed to get onto one while Charlie went to visit the markets with Nicky and Dale and had rather an interesting ride - The first rickshaw accident!!!
(Charlie) "We had a close shave. Our rickshaw driver, at a junction, decided he had gone a little to far, proceeded to try and reverse without a care who was behind him. The driver of the car, wasn't to chuffed as he shunted into his front bumper. I thought at one point, all hell would break loose. A cop got in on the action and after a few raised voices & grunts, our rickshaw driver made a swift exit and we were on our way again, absolutley in fits of giggles."
It was really nice to actually stop travelling and enjoy a couple of days in one place. We decided to hire a cycle rickshaw to give us a better perspective of the city, go into the city walls
Inside our mud hut
Beautifully ornate inside, showing the gorgeous painted walls that are reapplied each day. etc... 50rs got us an hour of Roauls time on his, not so stable or comfortable, cycle - these vehicles are definatly not built for western bums.
He was very keen to educate us on the cities history, although, when asked any direct questions, he seemed to have selective hearing and either nodded & smiled or completly ignored us!
Strange, overly smiley chap. Swear he smelt of whiskey!
Next day, we got up early and set off sight seeing again, which took us up to the Maharaja's Palace. It had been converted into a heritage museum around 1947 when India got it independance.
All Palaces owned by Royalty were converted at that time, so that the Kings wouldn't loose their properties...smart move.
We got to see everything from beautiful, antiqued garments (some made from gold), to traditional weaponary (guns taller that a man). It was extremly hot that day, so our attention span had about a 5 minute window.
It was great to finally get on an elephant, though. The ride up to the Amber Fort was quite some way so we were pretty glad the elephant was making the hike and not us.
Once again, we had
the usual crowd of sellers and beggars, only this time it was for photographs. In the time it had taken us to walk around the fort, see the temple of Kylie (with its beautiful Banana tree, carved into the wall), and marvel at the beauty of the views, they had managed to develop the pictures, ready for payment - "you buy, you buy"
Somewhere in-between arriving and leaving Jaipur, we visited the oservatories. With there huge sundial's and devices that plot the star constallations, which also map where the astrology signs are charted and are still in use today. India is very governed by star signs and we were told that some people will not leave their house if they have a bad reading.
We had our photographs taken in front of our own particular star sign, Charlie's picture is available in the gallery.
The following day, we were taken on a tour of a carpet factory. It was fastinating to watch the men making the carpets, never realising how much work went into them. It can take up to 4 months to make a single rug. Think we got a bit carried away and ended up buying
Pink City Gate
Roaul took us around the pink city one each. It was great fun going through the motions of bartering the price down - we had almost perfected the whole poker face and walking away strategy.
We then went on to visit a jewellery factory shop and a fabric and Sari shop, all courtesy of Varsha, our guide of Jaipur.
We even got to see one of the latest Bollywood movies called 'Paheli'. It was quite an amusing evening. You could pretty much understand the plot. But as abit of help, Satya tryed to give a little information as the film went along. Lou, who was sat next to Satya, tryed to relate the information to Joan. But it was proving to be a little more difficult. By the time it had reached Dale at the other end of the row, the lengthy discription of the scene had turned into two unrelated words!!!
(Charlie) "Satya had really tryed to make the evening run smoothly. He had driven half the group to the cinema to make it cheaper. We waited outside while Satya fetched the car. He left the car running, as he was only walking about three steps to attract our attention. When he returned
The Amber Fort
View taken from inside the Fort walls to the car, he searched madly in his pockets, trying to find the keys. After a while, he confessed that the keys must have been stollen. It seemed so unbelievable that we almost wanted to laugh. We tryed to look for the keys but no luck. The rug rats (poor kids), on the corner swarmed around me saying "phone, phone" - he had left his mobile in the car, but whoever had nicked the keys, hadn't noticed it, fortunatly.
"Satya had returned with a couple of lads who had a key they said might work. To our amazment, the car started and Satya waved us into the motor. The only problem was, he couldn't stop the car, so when he dropped us off at the hotel he had to leave straight away. 'Anything is possible in India' he said when we questioned how it had worked. I guess thats true...Madness!!!"
Day 7 - Karauli is a small village in South Rajastan and our next destination.
Our experience of India thus far, has been of larger cities that treat 'tourism' as a way of life/living. Here though, we found ourselves in a complete contrast, in an undeveloped and
untouched town. It was so refreshing. If I had any pre-conceptions of what India was like before we left England, this is what it would be.
We arrived at the Maharaja's home in the late afternoon. We were shown to our 1930's style bedroom, which had a distinctive 'Agetha Christy', murder mystery feel to it.
Ivy and Teresa were in the next room to us and we shared a very dark sitting room with them.
From our bedroom it led through into our private dressing room, then our on-suite...It was beautiful. We got to see everyone elses, too. You could tell how much the Palace had been influenced by the British, as it all had a very colonial presence.
We quickly located the swimming pool and went for a well deserved dip. Later, we visited the Ranthambore fort, which was stunning. And then back to the Palace where we were finally able to flaked out, after dinner of course.
The following day we visited the City Palace, once again an amazing place. The walls reminded us of the ornate fresco's of Shekhavati. We were just in time to see the temple, calling the faithful to prayer.
The chanting
Carpet Making
A lengthy process filled the room, almost deafening. It was great to see.
The market place is what truley grabbed us. It was fasinating to see the hussle & bussle, a hive of activity. The usual tuk-tuk's, cows and venders were aparent. It made a difference being able to take all this in without having to run away from, or brush off, the hawkers.
The wonderful colours & smells from freshly cooking meats and herbs & spices of all concoxsions, were fab to see & smell.
We got the opportunity to see how tobacco, and their local cigarettes are made. Charlie came out, after what seem like a life time, completely sold and rushed off to buy her first pack of 20 (later discovering, you'd have to have lungs of steel to actually finish one!).
We went on a bike-ride to the local water hole - all the locals made their way there, this time of year to celebrate the monsoon season and pray for more rain.
Arriving home we felt inch thick in dust, a swim before dinner was definatley on the books.
There you go, guys. Week one over. Look out for our next installment
Observatory
Can believe how presise these are. Loads of Love
Lottie and Lou
xoxoxoxoxoxo
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Auntie Elizabeth
non-member comment
Just adore your photos
So thrilled to hear from you both. What a wonderful experience, enjoy every moment. You beat me to it, I had a chance to ride a camel in Kenya, didn't do it, how silly of me, what a great experience. I will email you and let you know how everything is going here in Vancouver, Canada. Love you loads, your Aunti in Canada